﻿Physics and Chemistry. 75 



surface. Just' before the gas ceased to be absorbed the operation 

 was stopped, the salt solution drawn off and the ethyl hypochlo- 

 rite collected and dried. Repeating this experiment with methyl 

 alcohol, a point was soon reached where the gas seemed no longer 

 to be absorbed. But the gas evolved was not chlorine, since a 

 test-tube of it violently exploded on the approach of a flame. 

 Passed, first through a calcium chloride tube and then through a 

 cooling mixture of ice and salt, it condensed to an exceedingly 

 volatile yellow liquid of penetrating chlorine-like odor, which 

 could be mixed with methyl alcohol without decomposition, and a 

 drop of which on a porcelain surface exploded like dynamite on 

 touching it with a flame, shattering the vessel. Its boiling point 

 was fixed at 12° under a pressure of 726 mm . Analysis proved its 

 formula to be CH 3 OCl. Sulphurous oxide unites directly with 

 methyl hypochlorite, forming methyl chlor-sulphonate, CH 3 . OS0 2 

 CI, a colorless liquid with a powerful odor, boiling between 132° 

 and 133°.— Ber. Berl. Chem. Ges., xix, 857-861, May, 1886. 



G. F. B. 



4. On the Existence and Formation of Nitrates in Plants. — 

 Beethelot and Andre have conducted, at the Meudon station 

 of plant-chemistry, an elaborate series of investigations on the 

 existence of nitrates in plants, the results of which they have 

 published in four separate memoirs, entitled respectively : Meth- 

 ods of analysis ; the universal presence of nitrates in the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom ; the study of nitrates in the different parts of plants 

 and at various stages of growth ; and an examination of the vari- 

 ous sources from which these nitrates may come. They find that 

 Borrago officinalis, and the Amarantacece, of all the large variety 

 of plants examined, contain most nitrates ; that the stem con- 

 tains most, and the roots next ; that nitrates increase from germi- 

 nation until just before flowering, and then diminish ; increasing 

 again however after the reproductive function is completed and 

 even after the death of the plant. Grown on a hectare of surface, 

 Borrago officinalis gives 120 kilograms of saltpeter; Amara?itus 

 bicolor, 128 kilograms; A. caudatus, 140 kilograms; A. pyr- 

 amidalis, 163 kilograms ; and A. giganteus, 320 kilograms. As to 

 the origin of this nitrate, four sources may be suggested : (1) 

 the fertilizers used, (2) the soil, (3) the nitric acid of the atmo- 

 sphere and (4) its formation in the plant itself. The first is ex- 

 cluded by the fact that the manures used contained only a trace 

 of nitrates. With regard to the soil, analysis showed that the 

 earth over a hectare, to the depth of 0*32.5 meter contained 54 

 kilograms potassium nitrate; which is less than half that con- 

 tained in the Borrago grown on this surface, and less than one- 

 sixth of that in the gigantic Amaranth. Moreover direct experi- 

 ment showed that the nitrates in the soil did not perceptibly 

 increase during the growth in it of the plant ; and that, even 

 when washed out of the soil by the rain, the quantity in the plant 

 remained sensibly the same. As to the atmosphere, analyses made 

 at the Montsouris observatory showed that the nitrate contained 



